Yang Xiu
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Born in China, Yang Xiu (楊修) was son of the esteemed Han dynasty officer Yang Biao, and nephew of the powerful warlord Yuan Shao; he lived during the Three Kingdoms era. He served as an officer in Cao Cao's army. Cao Cao executed him in 218 AD because he mistook the warlord's night signal for an order to retreat.
Yang Xiu is described as one of the two sole 'talented' officers under Cao Cao; the other being Kong Rong, a descendant of Confucius.[citation needed]
According to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao killed Yang Xiu because he was too clever and boastful, with examples given as follows:
1. Once, a garden door was built by some servants of Cao Cao. When he arrived, he did not talk to his servants about their work but instead wrote a character, "活", meaning "alive", on the door. Nobody could understand what Cao Cao meant by this, except Yang Xiu, who explained that, since, in Chinese, "門" means door, writing the character "活" inside a door forms the character "闊", which means "wide". Thus Cao Cao was indicating that he thought the door was too wide. The servants of Cao Cao then altered the garden door, and when Cao Cao heard that it was Yang Xiu alone who had understood his meaning, he became alerted of his talent.
2. Once, a nomadic tribe sent a box of cake to Cao Cao as a gift, who wrote the words "一合酥" on the box, which in English, means "a box of cake". However, when Yang Xiu saw it, he took out a spoon and shared the cake with the other followers of Cao Cao. Cao Cao, mystified, asked why, to which he replied, "My lord, you wrote the words 'A mouthful of cake for every man' on the box. How can we disobey your orders?" Since, in Chinese, the words "一合酥" can be separated into "一人一口酥", which translates thus. Cao Cao then became dissatisfied with Yang Xiu.
3. Yang Xiu was a friend of Cao Zhi, the third son of Cao Cao, and tried to help him become the successor of Cao Cao, competing against Cao Pi, his eldest son. In order to make Cao Zhi seem suitable for succeeding Cao Cao, Yang Xiu wrote ten essays on general topics about political and military affairs for Cao Zhi, which the latter used. When Cao Cao discovered this, he was infuriated and shouted 'How dare he deceive me!' and thus became angry with Yang Xiu and Cao Zhi.
